HorseShoe Night games

Who is all ready for this Nebraska game. I want to destroy those cornhuskers and Bo Pelini, I am not a big fan of the cornhuskers but I am glad they beat Wisky because well we all know how buckeye fans feel about Wisky and their coach. I am pumped for the game, a night game in Columbus always brings out the best in Buckeye fans. Let's show Nebraska what it means to come to the horseshoe for a night game.Question for you, does anybody know why we don't have a lot more night games? I guess every school has 1-3 a season depending on opponents and what not like the SEC has a bunch I know that, but is there any reason why we don't have more night games than just one? Is it tv contracts or something like that? I was just wondering because I was reading an article on one of websites talking about OSU night games and it said that they did not have that many of them and I did not know why. Thank you for all of those people who answer my question and read this blog post of mine. Thanks Buckeye fans! AND LET'S GO BUCKS!

This is actually a big deal. The cost of renting the lights is negligible (I think the TV broadcasters pick it up), but they look terrible outside the stadium. I think Urban has been pushing to get permanent lighting installed in the next few offseasons... he clearly anticipates being on primetime more in the future.

This has been something that's been driving me nuts for quite some time now. I think the Big Ten's relative dearth of primetime games has really hurt it from a recruiting standpoint: (A) since players want the exposure that primetime games can afford them, and (B) because the more your league plays in primetime, the more the league is in the national conversation. Granted, that also means beating quality opponents, but I don't know why we have yet to see a game like Northwestern/Vanderbilt on Thursday night on ESPN or ESPNU--or why not BTN? To me, it seems like we're behind the curve, yet again; just like we were with staff salaries, and the overall hiring of quality coaches.
The fact that the largest collegiate stadium in the country hosted their first night game last year is a damning condemnation of this trend. Fans will come out for night games in the bitter cold of November; I just don't see the relative difference when 3:30 games aren't frowned upon, even though the stadium is shrouded in darkness by halftime.
The Big Ten has a lot to offer, but we're honestly being buried in some ways by our strict adherence to tradition. From the near-fanatical devotion to the Rose Bowl to our woefully underpaid coaches, our dependence upon the noon game (which itself is becoming more and more of a vestige in this day and age) is merely par for the course. We've shown signs of life, though: a big, sexy hire at OSU; highly paid assisstants at OSU and UM; night games actually being played throughout the league; and Delaney's support of a playoff (even if it was at metaphorical gunpoint) all serve as glimmers of faint hope.
As much as I hate the guy, Colin Cowherd got one thing right: college football is at its absolute best under the lights--no one does it better. It's about time the Big Ten quit its tentative embrace of this, and fully commits to giving us the Big Ten, all season long, in primetime. It's about damned time the Buckeyes and Wolverines met under the stars, don't you think?

i believe that this is an issue that will fully be addressed soon by the conference as a whole. There is a distinctive advantage to have primetime/nightime/crazy games in front of 100000 and on television. It is a completely different stadium being in the shoe at night.

To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift - Steve Prefontaine

Hodge,
I agree with you that the prime time games are great PR. They also have exceptional excitement with the crowd. Heck this is the only game we are able to travel back for this year, and we are very pleased it is a night time game. That said, it certainly makes for a very long day. I know all the young Bucks (pun intended) will be sleeping in and be in full party mode come game time. But I am a college football junkie, and I will be on High St by 10 a.m. So many tailgates to attend, so many games to watch.
I only wish that we could come close to matching the evening game excitement for day games. I think the young crowd has been spoiled by the lure of evening games and kind of save their season peak for those contests. Would be nice to have them show up early and be rowdy for day games as well.
One last thing - and I have written this before. I think it is a little absurd to play a west coast game in prime time in an eastern time zone. It does nothing to remove them from their "game time" comfort zone. I do know a few people in athletic departments on the west coast and they delight when they can play an evening game back east. These are the same people who will eschew a prime time match up on the west coast to try to play a the late game starting at 7 or 8 p.m. Pacific Time. They know that advantage it offers them to make the eastern teams play so late. For what it is worth they say the early game time (noon) is much more devastating to the team that any boisterous crowd. Silly that we play right into their hands. So much is said of trying to get a bowl game match up in our own reagion to gain home field advantabge, but when we bring west coast teams east to play us we seem to do everything we can to make them feel right at home and not get them out of their comfort zone. Just seems silly.

To help answer this questions does anyone know how much it costs to have those temporary lights outside the stadium? i.e. could this be a reason why there aren't as many night games? As huge as Ohio State is, I would find it hard to believe that is a tv contract issue, but maybe moreso due to the campus/higher-ups fear of something bad happening on campus? great question though. i think it might get usc '09 loud. i was at that game and also at iowa 2009 to seal big ten/rose bowl and that was ungodly loud im not sure why that hasn't been mentioned yet. come get your whuppin' huskas

It would be great to see some more night games, but like nick said we should never end up like LSU..they play just about all their home games at night..what time did their towson game kick last week? 7?..that takes all the extra meaning out of it..id like to see 2 a year..saved for Wisky, ttun, Nebraska, Sparty, or a big ooc game.

Well i like college and i like football...and im gunna keep doin em both cause they make me feel good!!!

I have no idea if this is true but I guess some of the reasoning might be as you get late into October and November, it could be like 20 or 30 degrees at night as opposed to 40's for day games, I don't know.

Prior to last year (and excluding the Marshall Thursday night game in '10), we had lost to USC ('09), PSU ('08), and Texas ('05) at home in night games. I think yesterday was the 11th in stadium history or something like that.